A Bunch of Burts

I have a sweet friend who sends me magazines of all sorts. We all eat them up and enjoy reading them, some of them over and over before we pass them on.

This last batch included a Taste of Home with a great light cake recipe, perfect for summer snacking or parties.

I have been given a large amount of poppy seeds, or something like them, by a friend at church, and have not really known what to do with them.

When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it.

It was a huge hit.
I frosted it, but I think it would be even better with a nice fruit topping, especially with some of the delectable summer fruits of North America, like plums, peaches, blackberries or blueberries. Mmmm, I miss all those! Oh, and cherries, don’t forget the cherries.

Poppy Seed Cake
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1 cup milk
4 egg whites
3/4 shortening (or butter, I used butter and it was very tasty, and if you ask me, better for you )
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cool and enjoy.

I would show a picture, but, ummm, we don’t have any left. Sorry.

Do you have any other poppy seed recipes? I could use some more ideas. When I say I have lots of these poppy seed type things, I mean it. This cake did not make a dent in my supply. So bring on your favorites!
And don’t forget to check out Works for Me Wednesday at We are That Family for other helpful hints from blogland.

Is it the little things that make a big difference.
One of our friends from home sent us a care package that had a tub of frosting around Christmas time and we saved it for a Valentines cookie party. It was sooooo good. Somethings are hard to duplicate.
Although I will not claim that this tip will make your frosting taste like Duncan Hines, I find it does make it better.

#1. Use real butter, or for a richer flavor cream cheese. Sometimes I will even use both, for a very nice result.

#2. Almond extract. Just a tad. This is the secret. I do not substitute it for the vanilla flavoring but use it in addition. Only a smidgen is needed. Half a capful of the little brown bottle, or maybe just a drop or two if you happen to have a large bottle and therefore a large cap. The frosting does not taste strongly like almond, and if you ask someone, they will probably not be able to identify the difference in flavor. But it makes a difference and the result is very tasty.

That is my nugget of psuedo-wisdom for the week. Thanks for stopping by! Remember, WFMW has moved to We Are That Family if you are searching for more useful hints.

One of the best perks and blessings of living and serving the Lord in this fascinating country of Thailand is the fabulous food available here.
No offense to my dear friends in PNG, but your sago grub worms:

eeew

and taro roots cannot compare to the tantazling variety of spicy, savory, intensely flavored dishes we are enjoying here. There is such a variety too, we keep discovering new foods and generally like most everything. Of course, we have found dishes that are one-time only experiences too, but I have ‘falang’ food that I choose not to eat too!

Today I want to share how to make one of my favorite dishes, Sabueak. It is a traditional Lawa dish, served at special occasions such as weddings, but it is easy to make and very tasty!

Ingredients:
Chicken (1 whole one cut in large pieces, or enough for your family. It is good to have some pieces with the bones still attached to make a tastier broth)
Lemongrass–5 stalks (slice 3 stalks very thinly and cut the remaining two into three large pieces each)
small red onions or shallots –5, sliced thinly
fresh cilantro –2 large bunches with roots attached if possible
green onion –1 large bunch
mint leaf –1 small bunch
small piece of galangal (similar to ginger)
2 bouillon cubes or soup base of an equal amount
salt
dried peppers (the large red kind)

Cut off the roots from the cilantro and gently pound to release the scent.
Boil enough water to cover your chicken and add the pounded cilantro roots, one third of the cilantro leaves, large lemongrass pieces and piece of galangal.

When water is boiling, add chicken and slowly simmer until chicken is done.

While chicken is cooking, slice up cilantro,mint, lemongrass, red onions and green onions.

You can see my handy chopper in the background, but do not try to chop your lemongrass with it! Lemongrass is sort of hard and woody and really need to be sliced as thin as possible.

Clockwise from the top, cilantro, red shallots/onions. lemongrass, and in the little bowl, the mint leaves

After chicken is done, and cooled enough to handle, coarsely chop. You want the chicken to be in small pieces, not shredded.

The truly authentic way is to chop up the skin too, to make it ’softer’, but I left it out of mine. You can do whichever you prefer. The skin does add extra flavor though, but unfortunately, extra fat as well.

In a large bowl, mix the chopped chicken with the sliced vegetables and mix together with 3/4 tsp of salt and finely chopped dried peppers –how much you add depends on how spicy you want it!

Tada! This is one thing everyone in my family likes to eat. Hmm, I think I need to add it to the menu next week, looking at these pictures is making me hungry!

(The pepper can also be used as a garnish, so each can decide if they want spice or not.)
Add one large ladle of the chicken broth at a time, mixing it in until the chicken mixture is thoroughly moist, but not so there is ’standing water’.

Serve with rice and the rest of the soup.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you prefer to have the chili peppers as a garnish instead of mixed in, here is a tasty
way to prepare them.
Grind up the pepper in your blender or hand mill.
Heat a small amount of oil, maybe 2 tsp to quite hot, nearly smoking. Pour into the
pepper and mix until thoroughly combined. Use as much as you can handle!

Shannon’s already has lots of other posts up, if this is not what you were looking for, I am sure someone else has posted something just for you!
Happy Wednesday!

After a summer-long hiatus from WFMW, I am soooo glad to see that my re-entry is a backwards edition. My current state of mind is What Does Not Work for Me. (Can you tell we began our homeschool adventure last week? ) I have a whole list of things that are currently NOT working.

I may be breaking/tweaking the rules a bit, but I have two bits I would love some bloggy advice for.

First one is easy. I have been looking for a good, a really good oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. The ones I have are not it.
In fact, I recently tossed a good portion of my recipe box and currently have no recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies at all.
Bring on the recipes, I am ready to mix up some cookies!

Second one, not so straight forward.
We are now in our second week of homeschooling. This will be the first year we are truly homeschooling. (Not to say we have not done something that could be called homeschooling, but previous years were sort of like those “Magic Eye” pictures. Squint your eyes and look cross-eyed long enough and any picture will appear, even adequately educated children.)
So even though sending kids to school really does work for me, it is not where we are right now. Since the kids are now too old to let any school years slide by, we need some help.

I am looking for some really good paper organizational ideas. How do you keep track of the work each child does and how to prep it a week in advance for them to access without me having to hand them each sheet of paper each day.
What do you decide to keep and what do you toss? How long do you keep it?

Also, what are some ways you motivate your kids to do more than ‘just enough’. Motivation that does not involve candy or trips to places that do not exist in Thailand, like a dollar store.
(kids are 8th, 6th, and 5th grades)

How about filler activities, when one has to wait while I am working with the other, perhaps for as long as 30 minutes?

Glad to be back and eager to check out what you are asking. Thanks to Shannon for hosting WFMW each week, see you there.

If summer has not arrived yet for you, do not fret, it IS coming.

And in the balmy summer days, or hot and humid rainy season as it were, it is important to stay hydrated, is it not?

In the interest of drinking less sugar we enjoy homemade sodas.
Fill a glass 1/4 full with your favorite juice, and fill up the rest of the way with plain soda water. Of course ice cubes make it really chilly and wonderful, and don’t forget the straw!

Loads less sugar than soda or a full glass of juice, fun bubbles to make it more exciting than plain water and stretches the juice too, making this treat easy on your budget.

This works for me, as I am enjoying one right now. Cranberry/grape to be be specific. mmmmm.

I will see you at Shannons for more ideas from the wise women at WFMW,